When I left for the Navy at 20 years old, in March of 2001, I was just looking to get a job, experience new things, and gain some structure for life. I figured spending a little time in the military would be a good experience. Good, but temporary. As an enlisted sailor, I never stepped foot on a ship. I was a Seabee and traveled by plane on deployments to places that taught me things that I, to this day, don’t take for granted. Building schools in Thailand for Operation Cobra Gold showed me how grateful other nations were to what they viewed as a beacon of light, and love.
Deploying to Afghanistan gave me an appreciation for the United States which most generations after mine are completely unaware of or irreverent to. A seed was planted, and I began to understand that our founding fathers’ vision for our nation and how the structure they gave us was absolutely necessary in order to maintain that greatness and strength which we should have inherited. Still, I took for granted MY role, every AMERICANS role, in participating to keep OUR more perfect union.
WE dropped the ball. I have benefited greatly by serving. I received both my bachelor’s and master’s degree with the GI Bill. This allowed me to become a Commissioned Officer and continue a career I never intended on having. I have met some of the best friends that anyone could ask for. I have been able to provide for my family. But still, the most important lesson, and therefore the most important benefit I could receive, was over the past few years, when the government, DoD, and the Navy, turned their backs on me and thousands of others like me for resisting an illegal order to take the emergency use authorized Covid shot.
Those of us who had given them the best years of our lives, had uprooted our families more times than most people go on vacation, have spent extended periods of time away from loved ones often serving on foreign soil, at war, and who believed deeply, and unapologetically in the oath to the Constitution that they swore to. Nobody, including myself, knew that I would have stayed in the Navy for a career 23 years ago.
One person, whom I spent most days and nights leading up to my departure for boot camp with, didn’t even want me to leave, but as fate would have it, she ended up encouraging me to make a career of the Navy, and being my rock through all of it: Mara. Every achievement I have had, every accolade I have received, were because she always pushed me and fought for me. She did so much behind the scenes that people will never understand. She has always wanted the best for me, as she wants the best for everyone.
In August of 2021 when the order to take the shot came down, she saw me, and other servicemembers who joined the military to defend our country and people, unable to defend themselves and did what many would never consider doing, in order to defend us, twice, even though she didn’t want to, putting her own plans and her own life aside, and opening herself up to the spotlight and public criticism by taking on the political machine and running for Congress. She put herself second, as she has ALWAYS done. This is her nature. It’s humbling, and it’s inspirational.
I am the man I am today because of her. Even when it would have been easier for her to walk away, she was there for me, encouraging me to fight for what is good, what is right and just. She has seen me at my worst, has pushed me through the most difficult times, has always been there to pick me up, and has fought for me like she does for everything and everyone she loves, to a fault. She is a daughter of the American Revolution, and that spirit undoubtedly runs through her veins. She is strong, even when she is weak, and when you need strength, she will give you hers even if it leaves her empty. For those characteristics we both acknowledge and give all the Glory to God, who designed her to be that way and for a time such as this.
The Covid years happened to be my promotable years. The DoD made it very clear that there would be zero tolerance for not receiving the shot, and I made it very clear that was not something I was willing to do. This exact scenario, forcing emergency use authorization shots on military servicemembers, had already been played out in court over the anthrax shots years ago. I knew that the law was on our side and was involved in court cases against those who are supposed to make the best decisions on our behalf. It was an illegal order. It was my right to refuse and my duty to disobey an order to force, coerce, or encourage those who also did not want to take it.
This fight enlightened me to how I wasn’t living up to my role in participating in our government. How we are complacent and expect authority, be it doctors or politicians to do what is right and in the best interest of the people, and to protect the armed forces so that we can, in turn, protect the country and the citizens. The problem is that those things aren’t true. The American people have relinquished their power and their role in government. This makes it impossible for the military to protect them. We needed the American people to step up. It’s not just the military that needs to defend our nation and our Constitution. We need the citizens to fight also.
Presumably, one would wonder who you have relinquished your power to. I can answer that. We have let our enemies, big government, alphabet agencies, special interest and the lobby, choose our leaders for us, and to use us for our votes on their behalf to elect people for favors for their cronies and to line their pockets on the back of the American people. We don’t have representatives of the people, by the people, or for the people. We have representatives that are bought and paid for, and to those who fund them, so lies their allegiance. Our politicians stand up and pretend that they represent the spirit of our founding fathers, and masquerade as revolutionaries! That our government is a beautiful idea still playing out. It’s not. It’s gone.
I intentionally stand on this ship named after the most wonderful document ever written and declare that we have turned our back on its namesake. We have lost the American spirit and fearlessness that it takes to fight against tyranny. Tyranny ended my career! Think about that. My career in the United States Navy is over because I RESISTED TYRANNY. People are too comfortable to a fight tyrannical government. This path only leads us into more tyranny. Complacency is not an option. The only way to restore our nation is to fight back.
And just as I fought illegal orders, just as I fought to get to retirement, to inform people of the dangers, both to them physically and to our way of life, I will continue to fight. The oath I took does not expire and it was not to any officer appointed above me, or to any politician, or to the president. The oath was to this ship’s namesake, the Constitution of the United States. and for that I will fight and, if necessary, die. Some people will never know or comprehend what others have given up for them, and that’s fine, in fact it’s essentially the purpose of doing it, but I would rather be the one giving something up than the one who is ignorant to those sacrifices. Still, this is no excuse for complete complacency and apathy.
WE are responsible for leaving a strong foundation for future generations. Mara and I always talk about how blessed we are to have four amazing, kind, intelligent, loving children, Ryan, Samara, Corinthia, and Johnson. They are resilient, they respect others, they love God, but they also know that there is a lot at stake and that what we fight for sometimes comes with a hefty price tag. I hope they never have to fight the battle we are in. I hope we are victorious, and they can carry on the American dream, but I also realize that they are aware and will be fully prepared to carry on this battle if there is still an opportunity to.
While campaigning Mara used to say that she was taught to always leave something in the same state or better than how you receive it. I wish that I could say that I am leaving the United States Navy better than when I joined, unfortunately I’m not. What I can say is that I did what I promised to do. I kept my Oath to the Constitution and the American people, when it was most difficult and mattered the most. I fought illegal orders, I exposed corruption, and I raised red flags about extremely concerning information and medical statistics that are signaling that our servicemembers, and further, people all over the world, are in danger.
When the DoD refused to listen, I brought it to Congress and became a whistleblower and have experienced retaliation for doing so. I have absolutely no doubt that if I stood down and obeyed illegal orders I would still be serving for years to come. We have come to a place that I recognize that all the amazing things about the US that I learned to appreciate are an illusion. If we buy into the illusion that we are functioning under our founding documents we will all remain slaves to a system that is spiraling downward and robbing the futures of our children and grandchildren.
What legacy are we leaving our children if we make the shackles shorter and heavier? Why have we forsaken our God given rights and accepted the loss of liberty as part of life? Why have we become so indifferent to whether we live in comfortable, albeit temporarily so, slavery, than difficult freedom? We don’t deserve the men and women who risked EVERYTHING THEY HAD to establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
We don’t deserve Life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness if we are not willing to fight for it. This may be the end of my Navy career, but I have only just begun to fight! We are symbolically standing on the USS Constitution for me to declare that I, Edward Roger Macie, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or DOMESTIC, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freer than I have ever been able to do, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully serve our Constitutional Republic, the United States of America, so help me God. cc:
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